Here are some pictures from the first few weeks of our trip.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005785&l=c6946&id=1096920053
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2005692&l=218ea&id=1096920053

Greetings from Dar es Salaam!  We're about halfway through our trip and it has been unreal so far.....
This week has been great. I feel much better thanks to some great antibiotics. :) Thanks for all the prayers from back home. Lee has stayed perfectly healthy, and except for a few days last week, so have I. That has been great.
I've had some time this week to step back and examine where I am. We've been spending most of our time at a big farm on 300 acres about 30 miles outside the city.  We call it the Shamba.  There are about 70 kids there, 5 teachers, me and Lee - and the whole place runs on $90/day.  Crazy.  Hezekiah is trying to make the place entirely self-sustainable.  He has huge dreams.....and man it's so awesome to be a part of them.  God is at work here, no doubt.  He has already blessed this orphanage and grown it out of nothing.  Now there are two centers (the shamba and one in the city), two students are studying in USA w/ host families, there is an agriculture program that is set to generate income, a poultry-prouction program in the works, and Lee and I are working on the 4th and 5th buildings at the farm.  All this from the only secondary school in Tanzania that doesn't charge tuition.....
Lee and I have been working with Keyando installing more frames in the classrooms and ceiling boards in some of the verandas this week. We are still waiting for an electrician to finish his work in the classrooms so we can finish putting the rest of the ceiling boards in. It is a lot of fun working with Keyando. He is a great carpenter. He is amazed at how tall Lee is. Keyando has to climb halfway up a ladder to put nails into the frames, but Lee only has to stand on his toes. It's pretty funny to watch the two working together.
Lee and I worked with Hezekiah on a loose schedule for the remainder of our time at Hananasif. We have a lot we still want to get done, and not a lot of time to do it....please pray that we will manage our time well and work quickly! This week construction has begun on a new guest house. The foundation is already complete and the bricks are drying for the weekend. We've been working on the teacher's cottage with our friend Gabby. It is also coming along quickly.
It has been raining a lot over the last couple of weeks, which makes work and transportation slower. We'll keep working through it, but we are hoping for a good stretch of sunny days soon....
I'm in Dar this week to help move the kids into a new compound a little down the road.  It's bigger than the church we are sharing space with now.  It's also a safer location, and we found a donor who is willing to pay all the costs for the place!  So we're stoked for that.  The kids in the city are younger than the ones at the farm, and most of them don't speak English - but it's so much fun hanging out with them, having arm-wrestling tournaments, playing tag in the middle of a church service, spinning them around in the air by their arms (that's their favorite), and trying to speak Swahili with them.  
We are so amped for Chris and Scott's arrival in just a few days....we can't wait to see them and we're excited to see how God will use them over the next 3 months. Lee and I have been telling the kids about our American friends, and they are excited to meet them too. Can't wait.

faith. hope. love.

-paul

philippians 1:9-11